| Geology Guidelines | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Submission, Review, and Acceptance |
| 2. | Forum and Supplementary Material |
| 3. | Editorial Policy, copyright, and costs |
| 4. | Manuscript Sizing |
| 5. | Style |
| 6. | Tables and Figures |
| 7. | Cover Photo |
| 8. | Contact Information |
| 9. | Ethical Guidelines for Publication |
Geology
Author Information
Contributions to Geology should be innovative, provocative (or describe a significant advance in the field), of timely significance, and of broad interest, either within a discipline and/or across disciplines. Submissions in all disciplines of the earth and planetary sciences are welcomed, but papers should not be overly geared toward a specialist audience. Content should reflect new discoveries or approaches, and should not overlap with publications presented elsewhere by the authors. All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter (see below) that clearly explains how the contribution meets these criteria.
Papers must effectively convey their significance and content within the short format required by the journal. Articles should not exceed four printed pages including title, authors, affiliations, abstract, text, references, tables, captions, footnotes, and illustrations (at readable size). One Geology page equals approximately 1250 words, or 7500 characters (with spaces between words). Supplementary files should be restricted to data tables and related graphs, and short captions. Supplemental information must not be used to provide additional text that is required to convey the message of the article.
Geology aims for rapid publication of appropriate papers. Therefore, submitted manuscripts should be in polished form. English usage should be of high quality, and the text should be written clearly and organized effectively. You may elect to have a peer, freelance editor, or English editing service look over your paper prior to submission; a list of resources is available here. Interpretations and conclusions should be scientifically sound and supported by data and analyses. Illustrations and/or tables should be clear and relevant. References should be appropriate and adequate.
Science editors have the right to reject papers without review at their discretion, but generally, submissions meeting the criteria identified above will be sent for review. Those not meeting the criteria will be returned to the author without external review.
Submitted manuscripts must follow the Geology style guidelines, and include all required submission items, including cover letter, manuscript file, figures as separate files, tables (if used), and supplemental files (if used).
Manuscripts should be submitted in MSWord, RTF, or text format. The manuscript should be in 12 pt type, double-spaced, and include line numbers.
Please feel free to use this manuscript template in .doc format as a base for your submission.
All regular article submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that includes the following information.
- Cover letters must include an explanation of how the submission meets the criteria of being innovative, provocative (or describes a significant advance in the field), of timely significance, and of broad interest, either within a discipline and/or across disciplines.
- Contributions to Geology are expected to contain original, new results, data, ideas and/or interpretations not previously published or under consideration for publication elsewhere (including electronic media and databases). Authors must confirm that these conditions are met. Authors must list any papers on related topics, by any of the authors, that have been published within the past year or that are in review or in press. In cases where the other publications contain content that might be viewed as overlapping with the current submission, the authors are encouraged to explain how the content differs.
- For multi-author papers, all authors must have been involved with the work, approved the manuscript, and agreed to its submission. When more than five authors are listed, a statement on the respective roles of each author is required.
- The cost for color is approximately $800 per figure (if your manuscript is accepted, you will be supplied with an exact cost quote). Authors must indicate if they are willing to support the cost of any color figures submitted as part of the manuscript. Geology does not create separate versions of printed and online articles; therefore, it is not possible to publish online figures in color but have those figures appear in B&W in the printed version.
Comments on recent Geology articles, along with the author's Reply, are reviewed by a science editor and may be sent out for review as well.
Please also read GSA's Ethical Guidelines for Publication.